The Truckers’ Report flatbed Hall of Shame.

No shame yet but i just drove with a steel hauler for a stretch. Full load of Overhung C channel on a flatbed. Ill say 4ft off the back and 2ft off the front. Hes got it bound down good and all that but theres at most a foot of clearance to the bunk while straight. No headache rack or anything between him and the load, just some tin and foam. Im worried for the dude.. Not to metion i hope he dont tear up the sleeper in a turn. Was a nice longhood flat top.

 

Unless the load moves forward, how would he tear up the sleeper in a turn?

 

Put a square in a circle.

 

Bored, so did the math.

On a 102" trailer with an 18" kingpin, load 2' off the front, swing radius of the corner is 2' greater than the center of the load.

24" kp drops it to 22" greater, 36" kp takes it to +18"

 

That's assuming it's all the way to the very outer edge of the trailer.

 

It will not get closer to the headache rack when it turns, as long as the load is not wider than the trailer.
Think about it if it did, the trailer itself would too. I routinely haul stuff right up to within inches of mine, and that is with the 310 wheelbase truck, so my front overhang is 8 feet in front of the king pin.
It is even more noticeable on my short 224 in wheelbase, where I can't have much front overhang at all, but I still do all I can at times.
It seems like the corners would get closer and I thought they did for years, till a guy showed me that they don't.
I put my logs less than 6 inches from the rack when hauling 53 foot or longer logs, I have had them close enough that when I go up the incline at the scales or any other sharp incline, the top of the load will hit the rack, but it does not get any closer turning, this even works with 9 foot bunks.

 

Well, that's flat out wrong.

The long wheel base truck it won't move forward as much, simple math.

 

Is the Hypotenuse of a triangle longer than the longest square side? That's what we're talking about here. The distance of the corner of the load at the front will project further from the kingpin than the center of the load if all is perpendicular to the length of the trailer. The longer it is the less pronounced it'll be, but it's still longer in the corners.

 

The overhanging steel was the full width of the trailer and about 10-12" from the sleeper going straight. Initially i thought it had already slid and he wasnt away but i hung by him and oggled it long enough to think that they loaded it that way.

I'll have to plop some dunnage on the deck and spin around a few times in a gravel lot to see whats do-able. I think itll hit but maybe im wrong. If that dudes load slides 4" things are not gonna be good ill say that.